Lina Medina was born on September 27, 1933 in Paurange, Peru, a small Andean village. However, depending on your beliefs, Lina had a very sad and shocking claim to fame. When she was just 5 years old, she became pregnant.Lina was just like any other little girl her age. She enjoyed playing with her friends in her village and learning new things. After all she was just a child. However, when Lina was 5, her stomach began to bulge and her body began to mature abnormally for her age. Being from a small village, modern technology at the time just was not available for the little girl or her family. For months, her family watched her stomach get larger and eventually they came to the conclusion that she was gravely ill, as it was a fast growing tumor in her stomach.

When her family had the chance, they took her to the Peruvian town of Pisco. But instead of finding out their daughter was dying from a tumor, they found out that Lina would be giving birth to a child soon. To confirm the pregnancy, doctors took x-rays of Lina’s stomach and performed biopsies. Lina’s father also explained that before her stomach started to swell, she was having regular periods that all of a sudden stopped. She was already just over 7 months pregnant by the time they confirmed her to be a mother. Pisco physicians were stunned by Lina’s pregnancy and were not going to pass up the opportunity to study this so-called medical miracle. One of the physicians, Dr. Gerardo Lozada, transfered Lina to a hospital in Lima, Peru so she could be observed at all times.

Once she arrived at the Lima hospital, doctors concluded that she would have to have a cesarean section. Due to Lina’s small frame and pelvis, it would have been impossible for her to give birth vaginally. When she was just 5 years 7 months and 21 days old on Mother’s Day, May 14th, of 1939, she gave birth to a healthy 6-pound baby boy. She named him Gerardo, after her doctor.

The father of baby Gerardo was never determined. In fact, her father was jailed for incest and rape of Lina, but was let go due to lack of evidence. Lina herself never gave any answers to doctors on how she became impregnated.

When Lina gave birth, her family and she believed that the case was over with. However, doctors wanted to continue to research and study Lina’s medical miracle. A new doctor and researcher was assigned to Lina. His name was Dr. Edmundo Escomel and he was one of Peru’s best physicians. His role would put Lina’s story on the map and show the world that her case was not a hoax.

Dr. Escomel’s findings rocked the medical world. He discovered that Lina was having regular periods since she was 8 months old, much sooner than Lina’s father had told doctors. Through tests, he confirmed that Lina’s ovaries were fully developed and that her matured body was from a hormone disorder. All of Dr. Escomel’s findings were documented and used later on by other doctors.

Lina poses with her doctor, Lozada, and her 11-month-old son

But Lina’s family refused to let their daughter or grandchild spend their lives in hospitals and research facilities. When the child was a few months old, Gerardo and Lina returned home. Together, they decided to make the decision to raise Gerardo as Lina’s younger brother. But when the child was 10 years old, they revealed that Lina was the actual mother.

Surprisingly, the Medina family went on to have a normal life. When Gerardo was 33, Lina gave birth to his younger brother. She had already married at the time. However, just seven years later, Lina would outlive Gerardo. He passed away at the age of 40 in 1979 from a bone marrow infection.

Today, Lina still lives with her husband Raul Jurado in a poor area of Lima, Peru. Their living son lives in Mexico. In 2002, Lina’s name barely brushed the surface of media attention again when she refused to do an interview with Reuters.